Introduction: The elderly population in the world, a growing trend in the demographic dynamics, for this reason, nursing care practices require the systematization and synthesis of the scientific evidence about cultural competence and transcultural nursing to improve the quality of care to this population.We ask ourselves: what are and what is the validity and usefulness of existing evidence about the practices of care to the elderly taking into account cultural competence and transcultural theory?Objective:Synthesize qualitative scientific evidence in nursing with cultural competence care for older adults, in order to recover and to describe the best evidence.Methods: Systematic review of the literature in the Iberoamerican Scientific Space, following a protocol in seven phases of execution restarts from proposed by Guerra, Muñoz and Santos Lozano (2003).Results: 20 studies were selected in which, without being its objective, elements of cultural competence were addressed.Conclusion: There is evidence in Teoría y Método